We have to step out for a lunch meeting. But we won’t leave you without entertainment in the meantime.

In case you missed the earlier announcement, we have a wonderfully talented new writer here at Legal Eagle Wedding Watch. Please give it up for the fabulous Laurie Lin!!!

Laurie’s first LEWW column appeared here. And now we turn over the floor to her again, for a review of this past weekend’s NYT wedding announcements. Enjoy!

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The Easter holiday made this a light weekend for weddings, so we only have two candidates for your Couple of the Week:

1. Shilpa Patel and Christopher Larson

2. Kimberly Hamm and Jim Rendon

Before we delve in, a correction to last week’s column. As a commenter helpfully pointed out, Skadden has way more than 16 associates from Fordham Law. We’d give you the correct number, but we can’t bring ourselves to return to that blinding cherry-tomato website. Suffice it to say that Skadden is positively infested with Fordham associates! LEWW regrets the error.

More on our candidate couples, after the jump.

1. Shilpa Patel and Christopher Larson

The Case:
- We like the diversity of this couple. Betcha they’re already sick of hearing that they’re going to have cute kids. (But it’s so true!)

- Christopher went to Yale; Shilpa went to Tufts and Brooklyn Law. According to the sages at U.S. News, Brooklyn is only the fifth-best law school in New York City, but it’s still better than the number-one law school in—hide the children, LEWW is attempting to count again—25 states!

- We’re a little torn about their picture. There’s something unfortunate going on with Shilpa’s hair, and we sternly condemn Christopher’s orange-and-brown argyle sweater. Nonetheless, they look radiant and in love. It’s hard not to root for these two.

The Case Against:
- There’s a family-pedigree imbalance here. She’s the daughter of a radiologist and a pediatrician; he’s the son of an optometrist, which is one of those doctor-but-not-really categories, like podiatrist. Let’s hope the real doctors were nice to Dr. Larson at the reception.

- Christopher is the political director of a PAC established by George Pataki, who is widely admired for being very tall. It’s commonly known that height is positively correlated with electoral success. The only plausible conclusion: We’re looking at the Turd Blossom of a future Pataki administration.

2. Kimberly Hamm and Jim Rendon

The Case:
- Kimberly is an associate at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, which has been an innovator in raising associate salaries. Thumbs-up, STB! The firm’s website is covered with ugly primitive graphics that look like cave paintings; they probably cost the firm six figures. Thumbs-up, STB’s marketing consultants!

- As a general rule, it’s better to go to a sports powerhouse for undergrad and an athletic joke for law school, rather than vice versa. Kimberly offers us an example of this, having attended the University of Florida and NYU Law. Florida has enjoyed a nice run of athletic success recently (Stay classy, Gator Nation!) NYU’s athletic program, on the other hand … well, they call themselves the Violets, and we needn’t go on from there. Yes, yes, we realize it’s violet the color and not violet the flower/skunk/Affleck baby, but still. They might as well be the NYU Pansies. So Kimberly gets points for getting her schools in the right order.

- Jim went to Ithaca College. We’ve been to Ithaca a number of times and can confirm that, yes, Ithaca is Gorges! It’s also in the middle of friggin’ nowhere. You can’t spend four years in a place that remote and not emerge a nicer, crunchier person.

The Case Against:
- With the name “Alexander Elias,” the groom had all kinds of nickname options. He could have gone mainstream (Alex, Alec, Lex, Sandy), exotic (Sasha), or even hip (Zander, Eli). But he picked “Jim,” which—and we hope this doesn’t come as a shock to you, Jim—is a nickname for an entirely different name. It’s like being named Laurie and trying to have your Brownie troop call you Camilla, which (we’re guessing) would backfire.

- The newlyweds live in London. London is glamorous. “Kimberly and Zander” would be at home in London; “Kim and Jim” belong in Minneapolis, or maybe Tucson. Which brings us right back to the point above.

The Verdict:
This one is very close. But in the end, NYU and STB can’t compensate for that crazy J-I-M. Congratulations to our winners, Team Patel-Larson!